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amishoard

Ami's Hoard

To Read is To Live

Ready Player One

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline This book made me forget that I usually get carsick whenever I read in a moving vehicle. From half-way through the end, I kept holding Baby Kindle while I was moving from one transportation form to the other: train, small minivan (one of the forms of transportation here in my country), and finally motorcycle. Yes, I was reading when I was on the back on a motorcycle. Because I couldn't put it down. When I was finished, all I wanted was to erase my memory, so I could start experiencing it all over again.This title came to my attention after a friend mentioned it on her review of [b:Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore|13538873|Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore|Robin Sloan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345089845s/13538873.jpg|6736543]. I only read MM or PNR/UF for the past few years so I didn't keep track on titles outside the genres. Then, I read Mr. Penumbra, and I was enjoying it so much. So I decided to give this one a try. At first, I had to admit that I didn't find it that enjoyable (thus, I couldn't give a perfect rating). Probably because the beginning was a bit slow, with Wade explaining his day-to-day life, including his classes and his journal and his obsession with anything Halliday. I was slightly bored.Other issues I had was that I wasn't the kid of the 80's nor was I, an American kid. Because of that, most of the references was lost on me, except for few movies or TV shows (John Hughes' movies, The Family Ties) were lost on me. I wasn't fan of video-games too (I preferred books than video-games, even when I was young) so again, those references weren't familiar.However, it changed when the "real" adventure began when Wade found the first clue, right around 20%. I was almost cheering myself out, there in my room, because of that. Then, it was all fun all the way through. I no longer cared that those references were not familiar. All I cared about was following the adventure of Wade as Parzival and his online friends (Art3mis, Aech, and Shoto) to get through the end. The other game-changer for me, that kept me captivated, was when the villains launched their deadly threats and resulted in some heartbreaking moments.Then when the race for the last gate was on, well, that was when I didn't even let public transportation hold me down from finishing...For me, the story was not just a love letter for all nerds and geeks out there (plus kids of the 80s) but also showed the great sense of camaraderie and friendship and hard-work. To be able to succeed, Wade spent his time doing research -- sure, you could argue that it was 'useless' research, who would watch Holy Grail! for 157 times in six years and learned the words by heart?! Nerds *lol* -- and it all paid off. None of his quest was useless. It shows that if we really love what we do, we can all gain something from it. In this case, Wade got the prize (and yes, he got the girl too :p).It was a wonderful, great, well-written, fun, omg-I'd-love-to-read-it-again read ... so thanks for this, Katie